The release of fragrance to mask malodor or to provide a pleasant surrounding is desirable in various applications. Room deodorizers can be applied by aerosol means, but suffer from the deficiency of needing repeated applications. Consequently, solid room deodorizers have been developed, but unfortunately the object have been relatively unsightly. Consequently, the room deodorizers have been relegated to areas such as under sinks, behind doors or inside of closets. It would be highly desirable to create attractive articles that would release fragrances to create pleasant environments.
The slow sustained release of a fragrant molecule is a desirable trait in various applications including personal care products, air fresheners and the like. Among the suitable techniques for providing long lasting scents are dissolving or suspending fragrance compounds in emulsions (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,525,588; 5,525,555; 5,490,982 and 5,372,806); encapsulation of a fragrance (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,500,223; 5,324,444, 5,185,155, 5,176,903 and 5,130,171); dissolving a fragrance into a hydrophilic phase such as silicone U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,689) incorporation of a fragrance into a cross-liked polymer (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,387,622 and 5,387,411) incorporation of a fragrance into permanent laminates (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,071,704 and 5,008,115) incorporation of a fragrance that softens at body temperature (U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,208) incorporation of a fragrance into silanes with fragrant alcohol to form alkoxysilanes (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,524,018 and 4,500,725 incorporation of fragrant moieties via hydrosilation of an olefinic silane molecule (U.S. Pat. No. 6,054,547). The disclosure of the above U.S. patents are hereby incorporated by reference as if set forth in their entirety.
While all of these approaches release fragrant molecules, there is a continuing need to provide attractive dispensing means from which the fragrant molecules can be delivered.